A lecture by Ivan Gorshkov, a founder of the Voronezh Centre of Modern Art

On 14 April, the Culture and Education Centre of VSU organised a lecture for Voronezh modern art lovers, which took place in building № 3 of Voronezh State University. The event was held within the framework of the Del arte Club project. The lecture was presented by Ivan Gorshkov, an outstanding artist, sculptor, and a founder of the Voronezh Centre of Modern Art. His works are known not only among Moscow and Saint Petersburg gallery dealers, but also among European collectors.

Ivan Gorshkov gave rather a defying title to his lecture – “A King on a Tray or Tales about Voronezh Modern Art” – the title combines (just as Ivan’s sculptures) different resources: a play by Evgeny Schwartz “The Naked King” (based upon fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen) and a short movie “A Rat on a Tray” (director – A. Tutyshkin, 1963) based upon short stories by Arkady Averchenko. Ivan showed pictures of his works, talked about his most remarkable exhibitions, revealed the secrets of the art-market, and told stories about Voronezh artists.

The focus of Ivan’s works is communicating by means of plastic art, shapes, and a challenging combination of materials: metal, concrete, foam, plastic, and old rags. Ivan tries to strike a balance between abstraction and figurativeness, both in his paintings and sculptures. He has his own criterion when creating his works – the “it seems to me” effect – when sculptures and pictures evoke associations or new stories.

‘Any artist longs to create a kind of miracle, something evasive. It’s always fun to look for evanescent images. You watch such kind of work as if it was a human being. It is not a mere source of pleasure, it is something that holds secrets and surprises,’ says the artist. Ivan believes that it is very important to change the traditional atmosphere that is characteristic of exhibitions. He defies unwritten corporate laws. Ivan concluded his talk by explaining the goal of his creative work: he tries “to employ his intuition and feelings to grope for a cultural pattern, for something that has not been spoken yet’. The method he uses to achieve the goal is quiet interesting – he endlessly reshapes his works. You can always start from scratch – you just extract various scraps, pieces, and fragments out of loads of old rubbish and combine them. As a result you stop being afraid of an empty canvass, of failing.

The audience was so impressed by the lecture that they did not want to let the speaker go. The most curious ones had a chance to ask Ivan their questions who was happy to answer them.